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Guest Commentary: Burned by the San Isabel Electric Association

By Bob Weinhold

Posted:
04/27/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT

I'm teetering on the brink of losing my home. But this has nothing to do with the recession. In fact, I have done everything right, paying every bill linked with my home near Pueblo on time and in full since I bought it 7.5 years ago. Everything is in good condition, and I have been a model homeowner. The same thing might happen to you if you make the mistake I did — picking an area with the wrong electric utility.

It turns out that in Colorado, electric cooperatives that serve much of the state are in essence unregulated monopolies. I have painfully learned they must respond to no one regarding many important issues — not customers, the city, county, sheriff, courts, state legislators or Public Utilities Commission (PUC), or federal agencies or legislators. The result, in my case, is that I may soon be forced to flee my house because San Isabel Electric Association won't accept a common sense, simple, effective solution for a simple problem.

San Isabel, like some other utilities in Colorado and around the country, is switching out old-fashioned meters for so-called smart meters, touted as being cost-effective, energy saving devices. Sounds wonderful in principle, and reflects general principles I routinely follow.

But there's a hitch. Based on the limited, but best, science available, a small percentage of the population can have serious, noticeable health problems when exposed to these types of electrical emissions. Others likely are suffering damage that won't show up for months or years. I, unfortunately, am one of those who suffer immediate effects, and have chosen to avoid many conveniences in my home such as cell phones and wireless computers because I absolutely have to. That's my choice, and I don't force it on others.

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But San Isabel is forcing a smart meter on me. They already did this once, with disastrous results to my health, requiring two months and $2,000 in medical bills out of my own pocket to stabilize. This was caused by just 5 hours of exposure, at which time they removed the meter in response to my pleading for relief (to their credit; some utilities have refused to do even that).

Re-exposure for even a few minutes now triggers identical neurovascular symptoms in my brain. San Isabel denies such effects are possible. The problem is, there appears to be zero independent, peer-reviewed, published evidence on health effects specific to smart meters, much less on people like me with serious underlying health problems. Zero. That's bad for them and me, since neither of us can definitively prove our case.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution. I have asked them multiple times to let me keep my old fuddy-duddy meter, and allow me to email readings each month, via my old fuddy-duddy computer I can tolerate. As many as 50 percent of San Isabel's customers have been allowed to email meter readings, until they recently got their smart meter, but San Isabel won't let me.

They also won't let me pay an average monthly bill, based on my years-long track record, and adjust the last bill of the year based on an annual reading, even though their staff told me within seconds of reviewing my exemplary records that I am fully qualified for this program. In a year of correspondence, with 7 letters back and forth, they have refused multiple times to explicitly tell me why they can't do either of these.

After my 4 letters failed to persuade them, it appears that letters from numerous doctors, long-time work colleagues attesting to my credibility, and family members telling them about my rational, pragmatic, thoughtful personality, and severe health vulnerability, have finally helped convince them I am credible.

Still, they refuse to let me use one of the two safe, easy options noted above, and are now suggesting use of an alternative smart meter. At first blush, it sounded like it might work, because it was pitched as an adapted older-type meter. But in reality, it is just another form of a digital smart meter. Again, no science to prove its safety.

Letting me keep my old meter has no significant downside. It won't affect how the utility functions. There are no rules requiring these meters, and many utilities in Colorado and all over the country are letting customers keep their old meter — sometimes with just one phone call, and no reason needed — so San Isabel would be setting no precedent. Other utilities have put off installation of smart meters for years, if ever.

The elected San Isabel board of directors is supposed to be responsive to customer needs (and does give special consideration to some customers, such as those whose life would be at risk with a power outage). But I have had only token email and phone interactions with a few of them, and no response from the board member representing my district.

The board has declined my invitation for them to meet at my house so they can see they're dealing with a real person, not a statistic. My brief interactions with board and staff suggest they have little or no experience with health issues. This is understandable, given the minor role utilities have historically been perceived to play on health, but it appears clear that boards need to rethink this critical lack of in-house knowledge as times change.

At the moment, the options I have been given are installation of the possibly unsafe alternative smart meter, reinstallation of the original smart meter on my house, reinstallation of the original smart meter a short distance from my house (with no proof that is any safer), or cutting off my service. None are acceptable to me, their customer. I can't pick another utility, and the PUC refused to administrate a switch to another utility, even though that is one of the few things the law says they can do.

San Isabel could take any of these actions at any moment, or in a few weeks, or a few months, but the current indication is they won't give me more than a few months. No one can stop them; they can drive me from my house with no legal consequences. If they install the meter while I am here, I will have to flee my house in minutes, with nowhere to go, and be forced to sell in a tough market. Finding a location and a house I can tolerate is very hard, given all the things my severely damaged body reacts to, and the medical profession offers no hope of successful treatment to reduce my reactions. Being homeless will ruin my health, career, and life.

Should a utility have this kind of power over our lives? The state legislature gave them this authority in 1983. The legislature can remedy this, but one legislator told me this will happen only if there's substantial public pressure. If you think it's time for a change, please contact San Isabel, your electric cooperative, your state senator and representative, and Gov. Hickenlooper, both immediately and after the fall elections.

Bob Weinhold is a freelance journalist who has covered health and science issues for 17 years for peer-reviewed journals and other outlets. He lives in Colorado City.

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